Shopping from David Mamet: Hunting Suits

Posted on: October 1st, 2009 by Lesli Larson

Apparently, I missed the news that filmmaker David Mamet started his own line of vintage inspired, outdoor clothing in 1999 under the Joseph Morse Company label. Here’s what I learned from the Cambridge Companion to David Mamet:

Perhaps Mamet should have waited a decade to launch his clothing brand. Per earlier blog posts, I remain fascinated by how well stocked his films are with newly popular heritage brands like Barbour, Woolrich and Filson. In Heist, a film I have not seen since 2001, Gene Hackman wordlessly walks through the opening scene of the film in an all-waxed cotton hunting ensemble. Although I’m unsure of the make of the field jacket (it looked Filson until I saw the pocketing), I’m pretty sure Hackman’s bag is a J.W. Hulme Co. English field bag (or a rebadged version offered by Orvis). Another blogger will have to document the make and model of Hackman’s shotgun and field notebook.

While Mamet’s own brand of nostalgia may have failed, I disagree that the past and its historical styles cannot be repeated/improved upon/multiplied into the future. Perhaps Mamet was meant to offer his items exclusively through the visual catalog of his films rather than by way of flimsy retail outpots like Banana Republic (a point of sale for his original line). For the pricepoint, and for sizing options, I prefer shopping directly from Mamet’s movies themselves (coming up next: Winslow Boy).

I read that the motto of Mamet’s clothing line was Quiet in the Woods. This must have been the overarching direction for Hackman’s hunting ensemble in the opening scene of Heist:

Heist (Mamet 2001)

A hypothetical look at Hackman’s ensemble by way of a vintage print catalogue from another age:

Mamet’s bag is indeed an original JW Hulme sporting bag. A true rarity, JW Hulme is over 100 years old and still carefully crafting distinctive leather and canvas bags and accessories 100% in the U.S.A. These unique handmade bags speak to a time when rugged American individualism was valued and people personally knew of someone who was a true artisan. http://www.jwhulmeco.com

That duxbak hat (great name!) seems like what Popeye Doyle would wear in the woods.

martin on October 5, 2009 at 6:09 pm

BTW; the fellow in the first pic, is not a hunter. He’s an early Trap Shooter. Clay pidgeons and all that. It certainly looks like he’s got a Ithaca 4E single barrel trap gun in in hand. Trap-shooting garb was hardly ever called fashionable.